Dynamic Page List

Introduction

The Dynamic Page List (DPL) is a MediaWiki extension that serves as a page listing utility, allowing the creation of page lists based on various criteria. For our purposes, it will be used strictly as a replacement for the category intersection function to find pages that belong to specific categories. This can be particularly useful for content revisions and creating versus threads.

WARNING:

• DPL can cause heavy server loads, slowing the entire site down.
• Inserting DPL code into any regular page is strictly forbidden.
• This tool should be strictly limited to specific wiki revision projects and used by authorized staff members. Regular users may temporarily use the extension within their sandbox pages if it is necessary for important wiki projects.
  • It is essential during certain revisions for category intersection purposes.
  • Therefore, it should only be employed within designated personal sandbox pages allocated to each staff member who needs to access it for their revision tasks.

Parameters

Below is a list of useful parameters supported by default DPL

Note: Not all parameters that can be used in DPL are listed here; only the most useful or frequently used ones are included.

namespace

Restricts the articles in the list to only be in one of the given namespaces. The common namespaces are:

•   - Main namespace. If the namespace parameter is left empty (i.e., namespace = ), the list will be limited to pages in the Main namespace, which includes character profiles and verse pages.
• User_blog – User blogs. Note that the underscore is required; using a space (i.e., User blog) will not work correctly and may cause the list to default to showing pages from all namespaces.
• User – User pages.
• Template – Where templates such as {{Disambig}} are located.
• Category - Where categories such as Fire Users are located.

If you omit this parameter entirely, the DPL will include pages from all namespaces.

category

This parameter limits the query to pages within the specified category or categories. You can define multiple categories using the pipe | symbol, which applies a logical OR condition. Adding an additional category = parameter line creates a logical AND condition between the specified categories.

The following query lists only pages that are included in both the One Piece AND Tier 6 categories at the same time:

<DPL>
category = One Piece
category = Tier 6
</DPL>

Meanwhile, this query lists pages that are in either the One Piece OR Bleach category (or both):

<DPL>
category = One Piece|Bleach
</DPL>

notcategory

This parameter filters out any page that belongs to the specified category, ensuring that all listed pages are excluded from it. Also note that you cannot use the pipe | symbol to combine several categories using logical OR in this specific parameter.

mode

This parameter controls the output of the query. The mode is in unordered by default.

• unordered - Displays the results as an unordered list (bulleted format).
• ordered - Displays the results as an ordered list (numbered format).
• none - Displays the results as plain text with line breaks instead of list formatting.

count

Limits the number of results returned by the query. The maximum limit is 500.

offset

Skips a specified number of results from the beginning of the list. Commonly used with count to control pagination or show a specific segment of the result set.

For example, if the Characters category has 1,500 pages and you want to retrieve them, setting offset = 500 will start the list at entry #501 instead of entry #1, as it skips the first 500 entries.

order

Specifies the sorting direction for the list results. The order is in ascending by default.

• ascending - Displays the list from least recent to most recent.
• descending - Displays the list from most recent to least recent.

ordermethod

Specifies the criterion or criteria used to sort the list. This can be combined with order to control the sorting direction and improve the result's organization.

• title - Sorts the list by title.
  • The default sorting order for titles follows this sequence (reversed if in descending order):
    • Symbols and punctuation (e.g., !, #)
    • Numbers (0–9)
    • Uppercase letters (A–Z)
    • Extended or special characters (e.g., É, Ō, Ã)
• size - Sorts the list based on the page size, measured in bytes.

linksto

Retrieves pages that contain links to one or more of the specified target pages. Including multiple linksto = parameter lines applies logical AND behavior, requiring pages to link to all specified targets.

<DPL>
linksto = Social Influencing
linksto = Rage Power
</DPL>

This will retrieve pages that contain links to both Social Influencing AND Rage Power.

notlinksto

Retrieves pages that do not contain links to any of the specified pages. Use with caution and only when absolutely necessary.

linkstoexternal

Selects pages that include an external link matching a specified text pattern.

createdby

Returns pages that were created by the specified user.

<DPL>
createdby = USERNAME
</DPL>

This will retrieve pages created by USERNAME (replace USERNAME with your username of choice). You do not need to include the User: prefix for this to work.

Usage Examples

Here are sample DPL queries that demonstrate how to filter results using a combination of different parameters.

If you want to retrieve a list of all Characters in Naruto who are categorized as Tier 8, you can use the following DPL query:

<DPL>
category = Characters
category = Naruto
category = Tier 8
</DPL>

To retrieve a list of all Characters in Naruto OR Bleach who are also categorized as Tier 8, you can use the following DPL query:

<DPL>
category = Characters
category = Naruto|Bleach
category = Tier 8
</DPL>

To retrieve character pages in Naruto who do not belong to the Tier 8 category, use this variation:

<DPL>
category = Naruto
notcategory = Tier 8
</DPL>

You can include or exclude multiple categories using the same approach shown above.

To retrieve pages with the Male Characters category in an ordered list, you can use:

<DPL>
namespace = 
category = Male Characters
mode = ordered
count = 50
</DPL>

To retrieves pages from either the User OR User_blog namespaces, you can use:

<DPL>
namespace = User|User_blog
count = 50
</DPL>

To retrieve pages that contain specific external links (e.g., for replacement, removal, or editing), you can use:

<DPL>
namespace =
linkstoexternal = %youtube.com%
count = 500
ordermethod = title
</DPL>

To achieve the same result as above but start from entry #501, you can use:

<DPL>
namespace =
linkstoexternal = %youtube.com%
count = 500
offset = 500
ordermethod = title
</DPL>

To run the same query as above but show the results in descending order instead of ascending, you can use:

<DPL>
namespace =
linkstoexternal = %youtube.com%
count = 500
offset = 500
ordermethod = title
order = descending
</DPL>

If you want to display 1000 pages from the Characters category, instead of just 500, you can use:

<DPL>
namespace =
category = Characters
ordermethod = title
order = ascending
count = 500
</DPL>

<DPL>
namespace =
category = Characters
ordermethod = title
order = ascending
count = 500
offset = 500
</DPL>

Notes

• Both the DPL cache and the page's server cache must be updated in order for changes to be seen in the DPL lists.
• A DPL query can only display up to 500 items at once. To display more, you'll need to create another DPL query and use the offset parameter to continue from where the last one left off.

Things to avoid

Please avoid overusing:

• Functions using randomcount; they can't be cached.
• Templates that are used site-wide; it creates hidden DPL calls all over the wiki.
• Large queries; don't display 500 results when 20 will do the job.
• More than one or two queries per page.

Resources

• For further information, click here.
• For a more comprehensive list of DPL parameters, click here.
• See here for all pages using DPL on this wiki.

Discussions

Discussion threads involving Dynamic Page List